There has been a lot of brave talk from the Bulgarians these last few weeks. Angry at being written off, the players and their coach predicted an even better showing than in US '94. After taking a point from this, a game they were expected to win, they were sticking to the line, but the simple fact is that when it came time to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk, they managed only a few steps in the right direction before ending up flat on their faces.
Sure, they should have had a penalty early on, but for the last 20 minutes they were pretty much over-run by a team considered to be one of the weakest in this competition. Predictably, coach Hristo Bonev chose to dwell on what might have been had his side been awarded the spot kick, but even he must now suspect that America's semi-finalists will be among the mortalities in France 98's group of death.
The Spanish, certainly, will have seen little to fear from either of these two teams, while the Nigerians, even if their preparations have been a bit of a shambles, will also take comfort from it.
Bulgaria, in fact, started very well indeed. Paraguay's formation allowed them a great deal of space in which to construct their attacks. And such was the ease with which Trifon Ivanov and Anatoli Nankov dealt with the opposition's strike-force - the Paraguayan attack passed most of the first half mixing it with the defenders - there was always a healthy supply of possession.
Up front, Hristo Stoichkov showed both his talent and temperament of old, causing havoc with his darting runs from the left and, inevitably, getting booked for one of several entanglements that were really pretty unnecessary. On balance, he was more sinned against than sinning; Pedro Sarabia, most notably, bodychecking the 32-year-old inside the area after just four minutes. He went close to opening the scoring on a succession of occasions, goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert and Paraguay's right-hand post both denying him a goal.
Had one gone in it would surely have taken a miracle for the Paraguayans to recover from the blow, but as it was they steadily got to grips with the game, going close more than once to causing the first major upset of the tournament.
"I think the result was unjust in the end," their coach, Cesar Carpeggiani, said afterwards. "Perhaps we just weren't calm enough to take advantage and make the last pass, but I think we saw the potential of the team today and I know we can do better in the future."
Carpeggiani had some cause for satisfaction, but how much better his side can really do remains to be seen. In Roberto Acuna he has a fine midfield playmaker and Chilavert is clearly one of the best goalkeepers in the tournament - he also forced the save of the game from his opposite number yesterday with a curled free kick from almost 30 yards - but then the group's other two teams are falling over with players of outstanding technical ability.
Paraguay tried five players up front over the course of the game, and ended up playing with three in attack, but none of them looked up to much. Two of the best chances fell to Jorge Compos who showed on each occasion that his right foot's only real value is as a handy place to store matching boots.
If Nigeria, who play this afternoon in Nantes, fail to perform then one of these two might still sneak through, but Bulgaria's hopes will not have been helped by Nankov's late sending off. Paraguay, meanwhile, might well need their captain Chilavert to add a few to his current tally of four international goals.
